ANNEXATIONREQUESTBACKONCITYAGENDA

Dial Realty will ask the city to override the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission on two residential elements of the proposed "Inverness Addition" in southwest Lawrence.

Developers who want the city to annex about 164 acres near the southwest corner of Lawrence will try again this week to get approval from the Lawrence City Commission.

On Aug. 17, Dial Realty withdrew its request to have the property annexed into the city after commissioners voted unanimously to accept a Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission report on how two parcels within the quarter-section tract should be zoned.

The property lies south of Clinton Parkway, between Inverness Drive and Crossgate Drive.

Dial Realty wants the property annexed into the city, contingent upon city approval of rezoning for the proposed "Inverness Addition," a combination of residential and office developments.

Originally, Dial had requested commercial zoning for two parcels in the northeast corner of the property, but city commissioners last month approved zoning only for a combination of residential and office development.

Jim Harpool of Dial Realty said at the time that commercial development was essential to making the overall plan work because the company needed that income to pay the high cost of street widenings, intersection improvements and other infrastructure costs associated with the project.

The new plan that city commissioners will consider Tuesday accepts the residential-office zoning that the city approved last month but asks city commissioners to override the planning commission on two other items.

Along the eastern edge of the property, Dial Realty had asked for a kind of "planned residential development" that would have allowed up to 14 residential units per acre. The planning commission recommended a less intensive development with only seven units per acre. The new request asks city commissioners to split the difference and approve 10 units per acre.

Also, on a 1.5-acre tract near the northeast corner, Dial is asking city commissioners to override the planning commission and approve residential-office zoning instead of less intensive residential zoning.

Under state law, the city commission has three options in dealing with the requests. They can accept the planning commission's recommendation, they can deny the application and send it back to the planning commission for further study, or they can override the planning commission with a two-thirds majority vote to accept the applicant's request.

Because Lawrence has a five-member city commission, it would take four votes to override the planning commission's recommendations.

-- Peter Hancock's phone message number is 832-7144. His e-mail address is phancock@ljworld.com.